It's Been a While
by AutumnAgain
Summary: Audrey's encounter with SHIELD is bringing back old memories. A visit from a friend brings back some that even Phil didn't know about.


It's been weeks since the Blackout incident, and, despite the protests of her friends (who think that she should be in counseling, at least) Audrey is back to her usual routine. In fact, she returned to her routine the day after SHIELD's visit. Daniels may have been unsettling, and the whole thing may have called up some painful memories (they told her that Phil was dead, and her tears were genuine when she realized that she'd lost someone else important to her. She never should have let herself get attached to these fragile people, with their self-sacrificing nobility and hazardous lives), but none of that is a valid excuse for her to miss practice. Her cello is important to her; she's been playing it nearly every day since- Audrey rejects that chain of thought. She promised to move on with her life; there's no point in dwelling on the past. Her memories can only hurt, and the others have likely forgotten her. She was never really one of them, after all.

"Illyria." A voice breaks her out of her reverie, and she flinches. No one has called her by that name in years. No one should KNOW to call her by that name any more. The others are scattered or dead (against her will, she recalls Angel charging a dragon, Spike standing alone against hundreds of demons, Gunn able to do little more than bleed on their enemies, Wesley begging her for one last lie). They haven't kept in touch. It must have been her imagination: an auditory hallucination brought on by a flight of fancy. It has been mere weeks since Phil's return; what are the odds of someone returning _now_, to dig up even older wounds?

Of course she knew that Phil was there when his team confronted Daniels; her senses are far better than he knows. She failed to confront him about his deception because there was nothing for her to say. If he wishes to play dead, she will allow him, and by the guilt she sensed she suspects that the ruse was not his own choice. She would have been forced to move on in a few years, anyway; her shell does not age. This is easier. If she says that enough, perhaps it will become true.

"Illyria," says the voice again, stern and male. She turns, slowly. Audrey Nathan is slipping away as her old instincts rise to the fore. It is a warrior, not a musician, who confronts the intruder.

"Charles." The years have changed him, as they have failed to change the shell of Winifred Burkle, but the man before her is undeniably Charles Gunn. He is rougher and more heavily scarred than she remembers, and someone has replaced parts of his body with cybernetics. She idly wonders who was responsible for the change; anyone affiliated with Wolfram and Hart should have known better than to challenge one of Angel's old associates. Something about him reminds her of Angel, now; he has the look of an atoner. "What happened to you?" She speaks with the thick southern accent that comes so easily to this shell, and he winces slightly at her voice. He recovers quickly, however, and answers her query with a single word.

"HYDRA," he says. She can see that he still doesn't like her much, although he is not as resentful as Wesley was - he blames himself, after all, for Fred's death; he has no motive to resent her - but he has had a difficult time recently, and the comfort of a familiar face outweighed the pain of the attached memories. "I needed to protect my kid, so I cut a deal with the devil. At least it wasn't literally this time." She inclines her head in acknowledgement. There is nothing to say to that, so she questions him instead.

"How did you find me?"

"Your picture's in Coulson's file," he tells her. "I recognized Fred the first time I saw it, but I had to wait for SHIELD to take care of my handlers before I could track you down." He shudders when he mentions his "handlers". She makes a mental note to punish HYDRA for that before addressing the other issue in his statement.

"That is a flaw in security," she notes. "It ought to be rectified."

"Skye already took care of it, don't worry." He smiles slightly, for the first time since the conversation began. He likes this person, or they did something for him.

"Skye?"

"A hacker, part of Coulson's team. She erased all of their records when they went on the run, to make it harder for HYDRA to track them down. I checked the databases to confirm it as soon as I heard."

"Good." The God-King pauses, contemplating her former comrade-in-arms. "If you were a member of HYDRA, do you happen to know where any of its bases are located?"

The cyborg smiles; he knows what she is implying, and he agrees. "As it happens, I do." He holds out his arm to help her down from the stage. She takes the offer, although she doesn't truly need the help. "Would you like to pay them a visit?"

"Of course," says Illyria, striding forward and shifting into her blue form. "It has been far too long since I have engaged in a satisfactory battle." She smiles with a predators grin as they leave the concert hall, her cello abandoned on the stage. She is a fallen goddess who has lost everything, and her companion is a stubborn man with no concept of surrender or self-preservation beyond what is necessary to protect others. When they reach the HYDRA outpost, there will be no survivors.


End file.
